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Jigoro Kano Biography
(By Andy Adams, 1970)
Indeed, he was many things to many people. Like Sir Thomas Moore, a man for all seasons. His many
worlds encompassed much of value to Japan. From scattered quotes taken from various sources close
to him, we can only glimpse Jigoro Kano, the man:
"He used to take an umbrella with him every day because he didn't like to worry about whether
or not it would rain."
"When he returned home, he would go straight into the living room, which meant on most days
I would not see my father at all."
"Just after I graduated from Waseda University, he sent me a cable: 'Your father has been
looking for a wife for you. What sort of woman do you have in mind for a wife?' Less than three
years later, I married his daughter."
"He was very strict with us at school. I had to get up at 5 o'clock every morning and help clean
the rooms and the garden."
"He was so proud of his legs he used to pull up his hakama just to show off his big calves."
"He wept when he heard of my sister's (his daughter's) death."
He was a perfectionist, a disciplinarian and a traditionalist.
But, at the same time, an innovator, an internationalist and a
man of great generosity. More important, he was a famous
educator and the father of modern sports in Japan. But above
all, Jigoro Kano was the founder of judo!
When he first saw the light of day on Oct. 28, 1860, Japan's
feudal period was rapidly drawing to a close. Across the seas
in America, the United States was embarked on a tragic civil
war. Just as today, it was a time of turmoil and change around
the world.
He was fortunate enough to be born into a family that was reasonably well off, at least well enough
placed to get Jigoro into the elite Tokyo Imperial University. His grandfather had launched the family
into the business of making sake in Nada, Shiga Prefecture, near the Biwa Lake in central Japan. In
fact, it was this same sake-brewing clan that organized the other sake makers in the area to help
finance the Fujimi-cho Dojo which served as the Kodokan in the latter half of the 1880s.
Since Jigoro's father was not the eldest son, the sake business was not passed down into his hands.
Even at that, his father did all right for himself at Kobe-Jigoro's birthplace-as both a Shinto priest and a
high-ranking government official in charge of purchasing agents for shipping lines. It was this side of
the Kano family that prompted the building of Japan's first steel ships, coastal vessels designed to
carry sake.
The third son in a family of three boys and two girls, young Jigoro was physically weak in his early
years. In fact, he was beaten up so often by local bullies he resolved to strengthen himself the best
way he could. It was this unrelenting drive to learn how to defend himself
that eventually led to his formulation of Judo. One wonders what would
have happened had Jigoro Kano been a big brute of a man instead of the 5-
foot, 2-inch, 90-pound weakling he was in his teens.
Jujitsu was flourishing during Jigoro's boyhood. One might even term the
mid-19th century the golden age of jujitsu. So it was with rather anxious
expectation Jigoro looked forward to moving to Tokyo, where most of the
jujitsu activity was going on. When he was 17, his father ordered him to go
to the capital on board one of the sake-carrying steel ships, but he insisted
on traveling by land. His father relented -- and a good thing, too, because
the vessel he was to sail on broke up in stormy seas en route to Tokyo and
sank.
Obsessed With Learning
Jigoro enrolled the following year at Tokyo Imperial University at the age of 18. When he wasn't in
class or studying, he would go off in search of an osteopath because they had all received jujitsu
training. Apparently, he was still obsessed with the desire to learn the art of manly self-defense and
concluded jujitsu offered him the best hope. His search finally led him to the door of a bone doctor in
Nihonbashi named Teinosuke Yagi who promised to introduce him to a jujitsu teacher living in the
neighborhood.
Jigoro Kano had actually started his training in jujitsu at the age of 17, but his instructor, Ryuji Katagiri,
felt he was too young for serious training. As a result, Katagiri gave him only a few formal exercises for
study and let it go at that. The determined young man was not about to be put off so easily, however,
and finally wound up at the dojo of Hachinosuke Fukuda, a master in the
Tenjin-Shinyo School of Jujitsu who had been recommended by Dr.
Yagi.Fukuda stressed technique over formal exercises, or kata. His method
was to give an explanation of the exercises, but to concentrate on free-
style fighting in practice sessions. Jigoro Kano's emphasis on "randori" in
Judo undoubtedly found its beginnings here under Fukuda's influence. The
Kodokan's procedure of teaching beginners the basis of Judo, then having
them engage in randori and only after they had attained a certain level of
proficiency, teaching them the formal kata, came from Fukuda and a later
sensei named Iikubo.In 1879, a year after Jigoro started working out at
Fukuda's dojo, the jujitsu master suddenly became gravely ill and died at
the age of only 52. The 19-year-old youth soon joined another branch of
the Tenjin-shinyo-ryu run by a 62-year-old jujitsu instructor named
Masatomo Iso. Located in the Kanda section of Tokyo near the center of
the city, Iso's dojo was known for its excellence in kata. Iso, himself, was
only 5 feet tall, but had a powerful body and an energetic personality.
Over the next two years, Jigoro Kano ate, drank and slept jujitsu, practicing night and day at the point
of exhaustion. Things got so bad he was even having nightmares about the martial art, shouting jujitsu
terms in his sleep and kicking out at his quilt.
The sensei saw his dedication and promise and soon made him an assistant. Jigoro instructed 20 or 30
students, starting with kata and then moving on to free fighting. By the time he was 21 years old in
1881, Kano had become a master in Tenjin-shinyo-ryu jujitsu. But Iso, like Fukuda before him, became
ill and Kano decided to move on, feeling he still had much to learn and wanting to study rather than
teach.
The next step seemed almost inevitable. Jigoro Kano met Tsunetoshi Iikubo, master of the Kito School
of Jujitsu, and began training at his dojo. Even when no one else showed up, Kano would work out
alone. Like Fukuda, Iikubo put the stress on free fighting and he was especially skillful at teaching
nage-waza.
Reforming Jujitsu
It was during these early jujitsu training days Jigoro Kano worked out some new throws and turned his
attention more and more to ways of reforming jujitsu into some kind of new system. While practicing
at the Tenjin-shinyo Training Hall, he ran up against a big, 200-pound bruiser named Kenkichi
Fukushima. Outweighed by 100 pounds, the lightweight youth invariably lost to the bigger man. He
wanted to beat Fukushima so badly he could taste it, studying everything he could get his hands on --
books on sumo techniques, training books from abroad, etc.
Finally, Jigoro worked out a new technique. The next time he met his burly rival he charged in low,
lifted Fukushima onto his shoulders, whirled him around and easily tossed him on the mat. He
promptly dubbed his new throw "kata-guruma," or shoulder whirl. Other throws he worked out
include "uki-goshi" (rising hip throw) and "tsuri-komi-goshi" (lift-pull hip throw).
The original idea was merely to reform jujitsu rather than found a new system. Kano was well aware
of the shortcomings, but felt these could be weeded out with the result that jujitsu could be beneficial
to young men -- not only as a martial art, but also as a form of physical education as well as training
and discipline of the spirit; in short, a valuable preparation for one's daily life.
He dedicated himself to formulating a system of reformed jujitsu founded on scientific principles,
integrating combat training with mental and physical education. He borrowed techniques of Kito-ryu,
holding onto those that conformed to scientific principles and rejecting all others. All harmful and
dangerous techniques were eliminated.
When 22-year-old Jigoro Kano took nine of
his private students from the Kito-ryu
Training Hall in February 1882 and set up his
own dojo in Eishoji Temple, Judo didn't
automatically spring into being. In fact, Kito-
ryu master Iikubo came to the temple two or
three times a week to help instruct Kano's
students. So what they were getting was
more jujitsu than Judo training. Two years
were to elapse before the by-laws of the first
Kodokan were drawn up.
Much has been written about those early days at Eishoji, and it is this temple that is generally
regarded by most people as the birthplace of Judo. The transition from jujitsu to Judo was made
slowly but surely, although it is difficult to pinpoint the day when what that handful of students were
learning was no longer jujitsu, but Judo.
It might have been the day when Kano first defeated Iikubo. Until then he had never managed to get
the better of the Kito-ryu stylist. But that day in randori practice, Kano blocked every move Iikubo
made, then called on his "uki-waza" and "sumi-otoshi" to throw the jujitsu master no less than three
times.
Kano explained: "Force your opponent to make his body rigid and lose his balance, and then when he
is helpless, you attack." Iikubo replied: "From now on, you teach me."
Eishoji Temple: the birthplace of Judo
Iikubo soon retired as an instructor and Kano finally received his accreditation as a Kito-ryu master.
Apparently, Iikubo was a vigorous fighter because every time he came to teach at the 12-mat dojo at
Eishoji, training got a bit more violent than usual. And the tablets would come tumbling down!
A Chiding Buddhist Priest
It seems the converted dojo adjoined the main hall of the temple in which the image of Buddha was
located together with hundreds of mortuary tablets presented by various worshippers. And every
time Jigoro Kano and his students practiced, these clay tablets bounced up and down and banged
against each other, several falling to the floor. This went on until one day head priest Choshumpo
rushed into the dojo and declared: "He may be young, but Mr. Kano is really an outstanding man.
What a fine person he would be if he would only leave this Judo alone."
Despite the priest's occasional protestations, the practice sessions continued at Eisho Temple.
Sometimes the training would be so rough the dojo floor sagged and even broke in some places.
Nighttime would find the indefatigable Kano crawling under the floor with a lantern repairing the
broken boards.
The year before, in 1881, Kano had graduated from Tokyo Imperial University and soon secured a
position as a literature instructor at Gakushuin (Peer's School), an exclusive school for the children of
high-born Japanese. His instruction at the dojo had to be sandwiched between his work at the school
and the preparation for the next day's classes. It wasn't unusual for him to keep going into the wee
hours of the morning.
He was tough on both his academic and his Judo students, a disciplinarian of sorts. But he was also a
very generous man, offering his Judo students barley tea and rice mixed with lotus roots at the
temple. He provided his poorer students with practice clothes, which he even laundered for them.
Priest Choshumpo finally came to the end of his tether and presented Kano with an ultimatum:
"Either leave the temple or give up practice there." Being an enterprising young man, Kano made a
deal for using an empty lot next to Eishoji and built a tiny training hall there measuring only 12 by 18
feet. But this was only a temporary move and Kano set up his next dojo in his own home in 1883.
With 20 mats, it was the largest training hall up to this time.
But 1884 was the key year when the Kodokan by-laws were drawn up. Kano declared, "Taking
together all the merits I have acquired from the various schools of jujitsu, and adding my own devices
and inventions, I have founded a new system for physical culture, mental training and winning
contests. This I call Kodokan Judo."
Randori and kata became firmly established and even made the subjects of lectures and debates as
well as a part of education. But the big difference from jujitsu was the "do" in Judo -- finding the way.
Kano saw Judo, then, as a way of life. He saw it in terms of a sport, whereas jujitsu was merely
another of the martial arts, a method of defense. The dangerous techniques of jujitsu were eliminated
from the Judo contests, but retained as part of Judo's defense system. This especially applied to
"atemi."
Another essential difference from jujitsu was Judo's application of "kuzushi," a theory devised by
Jigoro Kano during his jujitsu training and used so successfully against Kito-ryu master Tsunetoshi
Iikubo. "Using a minimum amount of strength, it is possible to throw your opponent if you force him
off-balance by breaking his posture." According to Kazuzo Kudo, kudan director of the Kodokan and
author of Dynamic Judo, "Jigoro Kano's fame and greatness are based on this principle just as much as
they are on him as the founder of Judo."
Fierce Rivalry Springs Up
As might be expected, a fierce rivalry sprang up between Judo and jujitsu. The
martial art had been steadily declining toward the end of the 19th Century and
its masters were getting desperate to hold onto their students who were
beginning to trickle away to Judo. Kudo says reports of street fighting by Judo
and jujitsu students jealous of their own prowess were exaggerated. Critics
claim jujitsu had a bad reputation for terror tactics by goon squads and it made
rowdies out of youths.
Among the now-famous pupils of Kano in those early days were Yoshitsugu
(Yoshiaki) Yamashita, who later taught Judo to President Theodore Roosevelt;
Tsunejiro Tomita, father of the noted author of the Judo novel "Sugata Sanshiro";
Seiko Higuchi; Shiro Saigo, who became a student in 1884 at the age of 16 and
developed into a kind of Judo genius, especially noted for his "yama-arashi" and
"harai-goshi"; and Sakujiro Yokoyama who was such a fighting demon he was known as "Devil
Yokoyama."
These students were Kano's Judo stalwarts in the early contests with the police
and other jujitsu dojo. The first "shiai" probably started informally in the Kodokan,
but by 1884 the first Red and White Contest was inaugurated, continuing
biannually until the present day. The following year the Kodokan won its first shiai
-- against the police, who had adopted jujitsu. "Kagami-Biraki," or Rice-Cake
Cutting Ceremony, was instituted in 1884 and has been observed ever since on
the second Sunday in January.
By 1886, Kano changed the Kodokan once again from his home in Koji-machi to the Fujimi-cho
residence of the Meiji Era magnate, Baron Yajiro Shinagawa. And it was here during the next three or
four years that Kodokan Judo achieved supremacy over the rival jujitsu schools.
Although he was a man of many interests, Jigoro Kano always thought in terms of Judo. To him, a
kyudoka was a Judoman using a bow and arrow and a kendoka was a Judoka with a sword.
Yoshitsugu Yamashita
Sakujiro Yokoyama
Tsunjiro Tomita
Once the Kodokan was firmly established, Kano's thoughts turned toward the spread of Judo on a
nationwide basis and eventually throughout the world. In fact, Kano went on his first overseas visit in
1889 to spread the good word about this new Japanese sport.
In the latter 1880s Yajiro Shinagawa, a magnate of the Meiji Period, was appointed ambassador to
England and asked Kano to take care of his house at Koji-machi while he was gone. The young Judo
master agreed, but was soon tempted into turning the house into a Judo dojo. Thus, Ambassador
Shinagawa's home became the next Kodokan, with 40 mats available for practice. Fortunately,
Shinagawa was a generous and broadminded man.
By 1892, there were still less than 100 Judo students practicing at the Kodokan. Kano preferred tachi-
waza (standing techniques), to ne-waza (mat work), at which he was less skillful and, thus, avoided
whenever possible. Indeed, he had a tough time of it when he was forced onto the mat. To
compensate for this, his assistants and students trained especially hard in ne-waza in order to beat
jujitsu rivals.
Ninety-one-year-old Saburo Nango, a nephew of Jigoro Kano and 18 years his junior, remembers
doing randori with his uncle in those early years. "He was small, but a very good technician," Nango
recalls. "He was also fast and very strong."
Nango also occasionally thinks back to the first Judo kangeiko when students ran from the dojo at
Kami-ni-bancho to Toranomon and back again in the dead of winter -- a distance of six or seven miles.
The first kangeiko was launched in 1894, while the first shochugeiko (midsummer training) began two
years later in 1896.
Management of the Kodokan was handled by Kano himself until 1894 when a consultative body, the
Kodokan Council, was set up. To say that Kano was busy would be putting it mildly. He usually rode to
work in a ricksha as headmaster of Gakushuin, or Peer's School, but only after spending two hours
instructing at his own Kobun Gakuen (a school organized by Kano for
Chinese students). After work, he would go to the Kodokan and
supervise the training. Then late at night, he would prepare his
lectures for the following day.
Kano became headmaster of Gakushuin at the age of only 25. It
customarily admitted only the children of the Imperial family and
titled, upper-class families, but after Kano took over, enrollment was
enlarged to include pupils from other social strata, including
commoners. According to Kazuzo Kudo, Kano ranks along with Shain
Yoshida as one of Japan's modern educators. As headmaster of both
Gakushuin and the Tokyo Teachers Training School (the present-day
Tokyo University of Education) off and on for more than a quarter of a
century, Jigoro Kano laid the basis of modern education in Japan.
He turned Gakushuin into a boarding school, allowing his students to go home only on weekends. He
refused to go along with the commonly accepted notion that the highborn were inherently superior in
mental potential and opened the doors to commoners -- a revolutionary move at the time. He also
had his students perform menial tasks in order to discipline them and teach them humility. Thus, the
entire environment changed under Kano's administration, and not too surprisingly the parents of the
students were full of admiration for the wonders being worked at Gakushuin.
Unusually Strict with Students
Nango remembers Kano as unusually strict. "When I was a student under him," Nango explained, "I
had to get up at 5 o'clock every morning and help clean the rooms and the garden."
Dr. T. Morohashi, today one of the leading professors of Chinese culture at Tokyo University, called
Kano sensei a "confident and broad-minded president." When he entered Tokyo Teachers Training
School in 1904, Kano was 44 years old. He called in a few of the students and asked them to speak
their minds frankly. Noting the meager
resources of the library, Morohashi insisted
improvement of the library should take
precedence over building a big dojo. Kano
replied one could read anywhere, but one
certainly couldn't practice Judo any old
place. Even at that, the next time he met
with the vice minister of education, Kano
pushed hard for a boost in the school library
budget.
Jigoro's feelings about education are
summed up in a statement he made at the
Kodokan's 50th anniversary in 1934. "Nothing under the sun is greater than education. By educating
one person and sending him into the society of his generation, we make a contribution extending a
hundred generations to come."
Kano often was at odds with superior authorities in the field of education, but never once submitted a
letter of resignation over the matter. That's because he never thought he was wrong! Dr. Morohashi
also accused Kano of delivering boring lectures, recalling once when only three students showed up
for one of his lectures. Kano was so angry he cried: "Everyone in this course is dropped!"
It was in August of 1891 Jigoro Kano married Sumako, the eldest daughter of Seisei Takezoe --
onetime ambassador to Korea. They had nine children -- six daughters and three sons, including Risei,
who became head of the Kodokan and the All-Japan Judo Federation.
Prof. Kano addressing a group of Judo students at Kodokan promotion
ceremony about 1907.
A typical "kokushi" father, Kano ruled his family with an iron hand; his word was law and disobedience
unthinkable. The eldest daughter, Noriko, wrote of her reminiscences of her famous father. Tall and
pretty with a well-shaped nose, she was the favorite of her parents and perhaps closer than the
others to her father. Even at that, she writes: "When he returned home, he would go straight into the
living room, which meant on most days I would not see my father at all."
Risei Kano remembers his father as broad-minded and a man with an international outlook. He
learned Judo techniques from his father at the home dojo, but simply wasn't the athletic type.
Although Jigoro Kano was a strict disciplinarian, he also had an emotional, warm-hearted side. "He
wept," Risei recalls, "when he heard of Noriko's death."
Although Kano provided his children with fine training and a good education, he was so busy most of
the time his family must have been lonely without him. "He left the children almost entirely to the
mother," Noriko writes in her "Recollections of My Father". Sometimes, all they would see of their
father was when they lined up at the entrance of their home to welcome him back -- "O-kaeri-nasai
mase" -- before he disappeared for the day into the living room.
Commands Instant Obedience
Those were the days of Meiji (1868-1912)
when the father was a benevolent despot,
when children were seldom seen and rarely
heard, when they were not allowed to venture
into the living room if he were there, when
they were not allowed to take their meals with
him, when they feared and respected rather
than loved him and when his commands
elicited instant obedience from them.
Both Kudo and Nango remember visiting Kano
at his home, usually in the morning. Kano was not always burdened with weighty matters, for Kudo
recalls they often talked of trifling things. "Kano sensei never smoked, but he liked his sake and his
face got red quickly when he was drinking." He refused to indulge in the Japanese tradition of
exchanging sake cups with fellow drinkers and drinking from theirs. Since this custom was greatly
admired in the rural areas, farmers invariably wanted to swap sake cups with Kano, but he considered
it to be an unhealthy practice and grew angry when they asked him.
Jigoro Kano only stood five feet, two inches but he weighed over 165 pounds. He had broad shoulders
and chest and big calves. Kudo says "Shihan was so proud of his calves he was always pulling up his
hakama to show them off." Kudo was also amazed at Kano's speed. "I was surprised at how quickly he
threw me."
Jigoro Kano teaching uki goshi, his favorite throw
According to Kudo, Jigoro Kano was always smiling, even when he was angry. "He laughed deeply
when he was pleased." Takasaki, his son-in-law, confirmed this by saying Kano had a keen sense of
humor, and although easily angered, he was also quick to laugh.
Takasaki also remembers Kano liked sake, but knew his limit and usually stopped before he had too
much. "If he over-imbibed, he invariably got sick."
In his active days no one practiced harder than Jigoro Kano. He kept at it until he was a mass of
wounds, barely able to stagger home. His Judogi is on display at the Kodokan and is made of brown
linen on the outside and cotton inside. He repaired it himself with kite twine. With the bottom in
tatters, the Judogi is discolored with oil and sweat -- mute testimony to Jigoro Kano's strength and
fierce fighting spirit.
In 1907 Kano had the sleeves and pants of the Judogi fully lengthened
to cover the arms and legs and protect the elbows and knees. The
jacket was also shortened. Thus, the Judogi assumed the final form in
which it is still used today. This was in sharp contrast to the early days
when Judoka wore shorts and a jacket that left half the arms as well as
the knees and legs exposed. By the time Kano was 60 he gave up
wearing a Judogi, simply putting on a haori (formal shirt) and
performing his kata in that way.
The Kodokan officially became a foundation in May 1909, and two
years later in April 1911 the Judo Teachers' Training Department was set up. Then in 1922, the
Kodokan Dan Grade Holders Association was organized, followed by the Judo Medical Research
Society in 1932.
When Kano called Judo "a way of human development understandable by people all over the world,"
he was attempting to formulate an idea he had of organizing an international Judo federation to
spread interest in Judo. By 1912, the Shihan had made no less than nine trips abroad to create
interest in the new Japanese sport.
By this time, many foreigners -- mostly sailors and merchant seamen -- were training at the Kodokan.
Books on Judo in foreign languages were being written. Thus, before the outbreak of World War I,
dojo had been set up in the United States, Britain, France, Canada and India as well as in Russia, China
and Korea.
A Russian by the name of A. Oshichenikov visited Japan in 1911 and spent six years training at the
Kodokan. Before he returned home in 1917, he had been promoted to nidan. He not only proceeded
to teach Judo techniques to the Red Army and the secret police, but was also instrumental in
organizing Russia's Judo-like sport of sambo in the 1930s.
Yoshitsuge Yamashita's staging of a worldwide jujitsu meet at the Japan Police Ministry in 1893 must
have started Kano thinking along the same lines for Judo. But first he had to spread it throughout
Japan. Nango recalls Kano lecturing him along the following lines: "Japan is a small, mountainous and
highly-populated country, short of resources, and so we Japanese must perform to the utmost of our
ability. We must mutually support one another and make the best use of energy to keep Japan
independent." Here are embodied two of his key Judo principles, "the best use of energy" and
"mutual prosperity."
Besides his association with Gakushuin and the Tokyo Teachers Training School (later known as Tokyo
Education College), Kano was responsible for founding Kobun Gakuen, a special school for Chinese
students which was attended by Sun Yat-sen.
Just before the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05, the Chinese Premier invited Kano to visit China at the
bequest of the Empress in order to lay the basis for educating young Chinese in Japan and thus
strengthen China. Kano made a thorough study of the situation, communicating with Chinese officials
by the written language of kanji which is used by both nations (although the oral language is
completely different).
School for Chinese in Japan
Kano recommended Kobun Gakuen be set up in Japan, but suggested Prince Saionji be consulted first
since he was the Japanese Minister of Education. This was done, and in 1902 Saionji asked Kano to
organize the school using professors from Gakushuin and Tokyo Educational College. The Japanese
government helped support the new Kobun Gakuen which educated
several hundred Chinese during the seven years of its existence.
Needless to say, Judo was an integral part of the school's athletic
activities.
Although Kano was devoted to Judo, he was interested in all of
sports. Just as he laid the basis of modern education in Japan, he also
became the father of modern sports in the country. In 1911 he
founded the Japan Athletic Association (JAA) and became its first
president. About the same time, he was named Japan's first member
of the International Olympic Committee and attended the Fifth
Olympiad in Stockholm in 1912 -- the first Olympics in which Japan
took part.
In promoting sports and physical education in Japan, Kano got a
wealthy lawyer by the name of Kishi interested in sports, resulting in
Kishi donating a great deal of money to the JAA. Today, the Kishi
Kaikan is the headquarters for the JAA. Kano continued as JAA
president until 1922, when he resigned and became honorary
president of that organization.
Kazuzo Kudo entered the Kodokan in 1917 and started training under Kano the following year,
continuing until the Shihan's death two decades later. He learned kata personally from Kano and
sometimes joined with him in demonstrating kata.
Takasaki, who was captain of the Waseda University Judo team, graduated in 1925 and immediately
joined the Army's Imperial Guard unit. A short time later he received a telegram from Kano: "Your
father has been looking for a good wife for you. What sort of woman do you have in mind for a wife?"
"Less than three years later," Takasaki said, "I married his youngest daughter Atsuko." When the first
All-Japan Judo Championships were held in 1930, 71-year-old Jigoro Kano's son-in-law, Takasaki,
emerged the winner.
Reminiscence of Nango
Nango, 91-year-old nephew of the
Shihan (Nango's mother was
Kano's elder sister), also learned
Judo under Jigoro Kano. He
studied Judo for eight years and
went as high as nidan. He still
remembers doing randori with the
Judo master at the "Kano Juku"
(dojo). In later years he lent
financial support to the Kodokan
and continued his close association
with Kano right up to the time of
his uncle's death.
Nango's impressions of the Shihan were of a sincere, well-mannered man who didn't drink too much
and was not especially humorous during the times they were together. He was strict and serious
when dealing with children, Nango remembers, and attempted to be completely fair-minded. "Keichu
Tokugawa, son of a former shogun, was treated no differently in Judo training than any of Kano's
other students."
Kudo saw him as responding easily to others, not quickly angered -- an apparent contradiction to the
way Takasaki recalled him. He listened patiently to others, never interrupting them, and then won
them over to his way of thinking by logical argumentation.
Kano always fearlessly carried out what he thought was right, according to Kudo. He was extremely
generous, Kudo recalls, and opposed to killing anything -- even insects. Dr. Morohashi viewed Kano as
a person with a many-sided personality. "He was a man of few words; once visited a hospitalized
friend and spent the entire day with him without speaking a word."
Prof. Kano (front row, fourth from left) with several other jujitsu masters teaching at the
Kodokan in 1921.
Other things Dr. Morohashi remembers: "He used to take an umbrella with him every day because he
didn't like to worry about whether or not it would rain. He also had the same lunch-soba (noodles)
every day simply because he hated to bother his head about such trifling matters as what he could
eat. And there were times when he was so poor that when he had to entertain important guests at his
home he first had to go to the pawnshop and get his formal kimono out of hock."
Although Kano was a confirmed patriot he was never a nationalist of the same ilk as Mitsuru Toyama
or Morihei Uchiba. In contrast, he took the international view and was a liberal, cut from the same
cloth as Prince Saionji.
In the last few years of his life Jigoro Kano
concentrated on the educational and spiritual
aspects of Judo until the systems reached a level
of intellectual and moral education as well as an
athletic activity and method of combat. Actually,
he referred to Judo as a sport with the three
aims of physical education, contest proficiency
and mental training. Its ultimate object was "to
perfect oneself and thus be of some use to the
world around oneself."
Kano taught kata until a very old age, sometimes
demonstrating its techniques with his assistants.
His method of teaching Judo varied according to
the age and experience of the student. Although
he stopped doing randori at a much earlier age,
he continued to stress it over kata. His idea was to have the students engage in free practice and
assimilate kata naturally.
Kudo once asked Kano his reaction to proposals for dividing Judoka by weight classifications for
tournament competition. Kano replied, "now a small man can easily throw a big man, but if small men
want to be classed by weight, I'm willing to give the proposition favorable consideration."
Opposed Subsidies
Kano was opposed to the idea of government subsidies, but felt if the Kodokan rejected it, other
foundations would not be in a position to receive grants. To keep from hurting the chances of other
groups, he agreed to receive a subsidy although it was quite small. The Shihan was actually short of
money and sought financial aid from the Kano clan in Naha.
The Kodokan, then located at Suidobashi, celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1934 at an impressive
ceremony held in the presence of an imperial prince and with high-ranking members attending from
Prof. Kano teaches a woman's self-defense class at the Kodokan.
all over Japan. It was at this time Jigoro Kano
presented cash gifts to the memorial plaques of
each of his departed teachers and voiced
gratitude for all they had done for him. The
money eventually went to the families of those
instructors.
As a member of the International Olympic
Committee, Kano attended every Olympic Games
from the Fifth Olympiad in 1912 in Stockholm to
the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, including the 10th
Olympiad in Los Angeles in 1932. Kudo asked
Kano if Judo should be included in the Olympics
and the Shihan replied: "If the IOC asks Japan to
include it, then Japan will consider it." In 1913 Jigoro Kano, accompanied by Takasaki and S. Kotani,
now international secretary of the Kodokan, went to Geneva to offer Tokyo as the site for the 12th
Olympiad in 1940.
In 1935 Kano received the Asahi Prize for outstanding contributions in the fields of art, science and
sports. Three years later he went to an IOC meeting in Cairo and succeeded in getting Tokyo
nominated for the site of the 1940 Olympics at which Judo was to be included as one of the events for
the first time.
It turned out to be the Shihan's crowning achievement although a cataclysmic world war was to force
its postponement for another quarter of a century. On his way home from that momentous
conference on board the SS Hikawa Maru on May 4, 1938, Jigoro Kano died from pneumonia. He was
78 years old.
Another dream, an International Judo Federation, plans for which Kano revealed in 1933, came true in
1952. Today, more than six million persons practice Judo in over 30 countries around the world. In
October of 1969 thousands of Judo fans watched the sixth World Judo Championships in Mexico City-
vivid proof of Jigoro Kano's prophetic statement, "When I die, Kodokan Judo will not die with me
because all things can be studied if these principles (best use of energy and mutual prosperity) are
studied."
Jigoro Kano at historic moment of 1936 Olympics in Berlin when
American Jesse Owens was awarded a gold medal in the
decathlon after defeating Germany.